A Place Like Home
by Minuky K
Summary: Moving fucking sucked. But it wasn't like he had anything to miss in his old home. Karkat Vantas has had to move all the way across the country with his dad after the divorce. Now that he's attending Alternia High School, will he finally make some friends? Or will all the fucking idiots here drive him insane? (Humanstuck AU!) (Adult language) (Really shitty fanfic writing)


Moving sucked.  
Karkat stared out the window of beaten up pick up, sighing in annoyance. He tried to focus on the grassy fields that he and his father were driving past, but his mind kept drifting back to the very subject he was trying to ignore. He shook his head, hoping the sudden movement would clear his head, but to no avail.  
Next to him, his father stared straight forward, eyes on the road and hands on the wheel, gripping it so tight his knuckles looked white.  
Karkat sighed, turning to face the little car radio and began twisting the knob and pushing random buttons. The channels were mainly static, with the only actual channels being those reporting the weather and talking about some political mess. He settled on one station, then returning back to looking out the window.  
Karkat began to slowly lose himself in the soft, soothing voice of the weather reporter when suddenly it shut off. He whipped his head around, glaring at his father for a few seconds, then attempted to turn the radio back on. Attempted being the proper word as the moment he reached towards the radio, his father grunted, shaking his head.  
This one gonna be one long drive.

A few hours later, Karkat's father pulled into the driveway of a house. He exited the car, walking towards the moving van that had arrived ahead of them, then started directing the moving men where to move the furniture. Karkat slumped in the front seat. _Why did they have to move? Everything was fine, they didn't have to move just because she was there- or rather she_ _ **wouldn't**_ _be there anymore…._  
A loud knock on the car window snapped the boy out of his thoughts. His father stood there, looking as crabby as ever, gesturing for Karkat to exit the car.  
"Come on kid. It's where you live now, so you have to help us set it all up."  
Karkat huffed, exiting the car to help. It wasn't like he had a choice at this point.

I flopped down on my bed, pissed and tired as hell. Moving all the furniture that Dad had decided to lug all the way across the country hadn't appeared to be an easy feat, but I hadn't excepted it to be as tiring as it was either. Not to mention that but we hadn't been able to agree on where to put most of the furniture, meaning we spent a good portion of our time arguing.  
But then again, all we did was argue.  
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, turning it on.  
1 2 : 1 8  
 _Fuck._  
I put my phone to charge, turned off the light, then climbed back into bed. I had to get some sleep, after all. Dad has the misfortune to decide we should move towards the end of summer, meaning I had to go to school sooner rather than later. And by sooner, I mean the very next day. I sighed, pulling the blanket over my head and closing my eyes

The next morning came too damn fast. Before I knew what was happening, I was standing by some stop sign on some random street, staring at the dirty sideway. A bunch of other kids milled around, most of them talking to their friends about how their summer was, occasionally stealing a glance at me, the stranger no one recognized. I avoided eye contact, as that usually resulted in awkward confrontations with idiots I wasn't nearly awake enough to deal with.  
"Hey guys! How was your break?"  
"Oh hey there. How've you been?"  
"Oh. Oh HELL No. I am not dealing with your bullshit this morning, at least wait until lunch."  
I groaned, bouncing on the balls of my feet, craning my neck to look down the street for a bus. Or a car. Or anything I could get hit with to end this nightmare.  
"Oh? And who might we have here?"  
 _God…. Why must you hate me?  
_ I turned to face the direction where the voice came from. A girl with long black hair stood in front of me, her hands crossed over her chest. She looked at me with some degree of curiosity on her face.  
"Can I help you?"  
"Oh, sure. I'm Virska, please to meet you." She stuck out her hand, a grin spreading across her face. Behind her, the small cluster of students had stopped talking, all of them blankly staring at us.  
I hesitated, the quickly shook her hand.  
"…Anything else?"  
She scoffed, flipping her hair. "Woooow, rude much? Not even going to introduce yourself to a lovely lady such as myself? Ha. Guess I should have expected as much."  
"Yeah, Guess so." I turned back to the road, scanning the street again. I could see the girl in my peripherals, first just standing there in what I assumed was shock, then she sauntered away. As she passed various people, they all resumed talking amongst themselves, as if they weren't just watching everything go down.  
I sighed, looking back down at the floor. I heard some footsteps approach me once again, this time accompanied by a weird clacking noise.  
"Hey there. Sorry about Virska, she can be kind of a bitch sometimes. Okay well, all the time."  
I groaned. Would this bus never arrive?  
"Look, sorry, but I'm not in the fucking mood, alright? I just fucking moved here-"  
"Well damn, is that anyway to treat a blind girl? Shame on you, new kid."  
My head snapped up. The person in front of me held a cane of sorts in her hands, leaning on it as she faced my general direction. Some peculiarly shaped red shades sat on her nose, covering her eyes.  
"Oh, shocked are we? Most people are. So," she continued, shifting her position a bit, "I'm Terazi. You?"  
I stared at her a bit longer. "Karkat."  
"Weird name ya got there."  
"Says the girl named Terazi."  
"Oh hush now rude boy. My name is nothing for you to critique." She smiled, tilting her head.  
I opened my mouth, only to be cut off by her hand covering my mouth. "Hush Rude Boy! The bus is almost here. I gotta dash. See you later."  
She turned on her heel and left, heading back to where Virska stood. They turned their backs to me, whispering to one another. Sure enough, the bus arrived shortly, and we all piled in.

I stood at the front desk of the attendance office, silently cursing my dad. Because I had moved here so close to when the school year was going to be starting, the office apparently had some issues getting my schedule put together. I watched a secretary run back and forth, already looking quite stressed out. She occasionally paused to stare at me, quickly remembering why the weird and probably tired as fuck looking kid was staring back at her. Or perhaps she was staring at my hair, god knows anymore. Eventually, she handed me a piece of paper.  
"Alright so, here's your schedule Mr. Vantas, sorry for the wait, it's kind of hectic right now. First period starts in ten minutes, so you can try and figure out where your classes are. Sorry I can't help anymore, I'm busy enough as it is." She then rushed off again, mumbling to herself. I walked out of the office, glancing around for any clue of where to go. That's when some kid ran into me.  
"OW!"  
"Fuck dude, watch where the hell you're going!" I shook my head, attempting to stand up.  
"Oh crap, sorry dude. Here, lemme help." The kid helped me to my feet.  
"Yeah, sure whatever. Just don't fucking do it again."  
The kid was quite for a sec.  
"Hey, I haven't seen you around here before. You new?" He looked at me with wide eyes, mouth ever so slightly ajar.  
"No, I'm your aunt fucking Trisha. Now if you excuse me-," I attempted to push past him, but he grabbed the sleeve of my sweater.  
"No hey listen. I can help you find your class. It's the least I can do."  
"… Fine."  
"Great! I'm John by the way. What class do you have first um….."  
"Physics in Room 323. Karat."  
"Cool name. Follow me. Actually," he glanced down at his own schedule, "I have a class near that!"  
"Fucking wonderful. You can run into me every goddamned morning." We started climbing up a flight of stairs.  
"Yeah!"  
The rest of the way, John blabbered on about the school and all the clubs it had, which I frankly couldn't give a flying fuck about. When we finally did get into the hall where the class was, he started scanning the doors.  
"232…232…. Ah, here we are. Oh, hey! Good morning Rose!" He ran up to a girl standing outside the classroom. She smiled softly.  
"A wonderful morning to you too John. Oh, who's this?" She peered over his shoulder at me.  
"This is Karkat. I ran into him this morning. He's new to Alternia High!"  
"Oh is he now? Well, pleased to make your acquaintance Karkat. I am Rose Lalonde."  
I grunted.  
"Not much of a talker, are you Karkat?" John smiled all big, then slapped my back. I shook my head.  
"That's fine. Well, I better be going! Bye guys!" He rushed off, waving at us.  
Rose waved back, then refocused her attention on me.  
 _Oh fuck no.  
_ "I'd attempt to make some kind of conversation, but you are new and most likely already tired of all the interactions you've had with John, not to mention whoever else bothered you this morning. I will save my psychological evaluation of you for another time." She smiled, then opened a book she had and began to read.  
I stared at her for a few moments, then leaned against the wall next to her, slumping down to the ground.  
 _Thanks fucking god._


End file.
